Other than b-links, what affects SERPS?

Other than b-links, what affects SERPS?So, clearly there is much more to ranking than backlinks. All the time I see sites ahead of me with less backlinks. For example, let's say I have a new site with 15 backlinks. The guy a position ahead of me has 13. Why is he ahead? I look at his links, they are all profile backlinks, just like mine. His PR is 0, just like mine. His domain age, n/a. His content? Garbage, absolute scraped, spun, regurgitated garbage. Mine, original hand written, I won't say pristine, but let's say much better. So what gives???=============Display Advertising|PPC